Reducing & Recycling
Recycling for our customers
We've been working hard with customers to make recycling even easier and more attractive.
In 2005 we invested over £600,000 in new automated recycling machines for customers at our stores in Winchester, Havant, Portsmouth, Southampton, Andover and Royston and we plan to install these at many more stores.
We reckon this will double the amount our customers bring in for recycling. Add it all up, and that's 10% of the total additional amount needed to meet the UK's EU packaging recycling targets by 2008.
Recycling in our operations
We've boosted the amount of store waste we recycle from 65% to 71% in 2005, saving a total of 26,694 tonnes of waste from going to landfill. Over the last four years we've improved the amount we recycle from 55% to 71% - saving 125,359 tonnes.
Reducing
Cutting the amount of food waste going to landfill is a big focus for us. We're already testing technologies such as aerobic digestion and gasification, which turn food waste into energy.
We've also reviewed a number of potential sites, to see whether they would be suitable for housing a gasification unit - the plan is to install the first unit over the next year.
A good neighbour
When we opened our Diss store in November 2005, we wanted it to become a proving ground for environmental and cost-saving features.
For example, it's one of the first buildings in the UK to feature the latest energy-generating roof turbines, with five of them fitted above the store.
The store also features large translucent panels in the roof - cutting the amount of artificial lighting we need.
We've also modified our refrigeration cabinets, to keep the cold air inside, and recycle cold air back into the cooling system.
It all adds up to a 20% saving in the annual electricity bill, when compared to a standard store design.
Energy
When it comes to saving energy, we want to be the UK's best supermarket. So we've set a target to cut the average energy use in our buildings (kwh/sqft) in half by 2010.
To do this we're:
- Setting up a £100 million sustainable technology innovation fund.
- Phasing out greenhouse gases in refrigeration.
- Increasing the efficiency of our distribution fleets.
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